My personal take:
In Wuhan, Spain, Italy, and England, there were set times that people went on their porches to sing, serenade each other, yell to each other, applaud medical workers, ect. Everyone in the world thought it was wonderful, and there were laudatory headlines and videos everywhere. Suddenly, when people are doing the same thing to sing and praise Hashem, they're evil. It feels to me like the story with the yid on the train in the 1950s, that someone came over to him and berated him for the chilul Hashem he was causing by dressing in the old world style long coat, hat, and beard. The person looked at the yeller blankly and said "I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'm Amish, and this is how we preserve our traditions. I'm sorry if it offends you." The yeller apologized profusely, and said how wonderful he thought it was that he was preserving the ways of his ancestors and how he should be proud of it... The "Amish" guy said to him "For the Amish it's wonderful and praiseworthy, but for a yid it's a chilul Hashem"?
In addition, many non essential businesses are still open, and I don't see people getting emotional about people attending. I haven't seen a single business where appropriate social distancing measures were maintained. Not a single one. Not banks, not pharmacies, not supermarkets... Nothing. In fact, it's nearly impossible for appropriate non contagion measures to be maintained in these settings. Yet I don't see anyone getting emotional about them. I have seen minyanim where appropriate distances were maintained. An outdoor minyan setting is significantly more feasible to maintain a safe environment than a store, being as not everyone needs to be in the same aisles getting the same items by necessity, it's possible to be over a much larger area, and people are not touching the same surfaces. Yet all these pseudo epidemiologists that speak 3 words of Yiddish and know how to yell in a WhatsApp video are convinced that all these people that ch'v answer amen yehei shmei rabbah are rotzchim.
If we were taking social distancing as seriously as these people feel we should, every store should be closed. Yes, EVERY SINGLE ONE. Forget about the liquor stores and other ridiculous stores that are legally allowed to remain open (I haven't seen a single WhatsApp video ranting about those-in fact, it seems that the august darshanim like to utilize them...)-every food store and pharmacy should be closed too. They can all be converted to deliver only, and organizations can be mobilized and arranged to take orders, pack them, and deliver them. Kreindy won't get the brand mayonnaise she likes, and Berel won't get his favorite rack of ribs? They'll survive on potatoes and matzah. I'm well aware that people need emergency medications ect... They can all be delivered. These stores are infinitely more dangerous than minyanim, based on the apparent impossibility to operate them in a safe mannerism. If every guy that is ranting about people davening with a minyan would volunteer to help take orders and deliver, this would be entirely doable. This is a warzone we're talking about, not peacetime. Nobody should be talking about how this isn't feasible because their kids get cranky if they don't have fresh milk and eggs and their favorite brand cereal every 2 days.
Different people seem to have different priorities. I think the same people that rant about the chilul Hashem of minyanim on airplanes, the chilul Hashem of men not sitting next to women, and the chilul Hashem of the Yidden in the 1950s that walked around with a yarmulke and peyos and beard are ranting about this. It depends which religion you subscribe to.
This is my personal take.
However, I am wrong. That is because I asked my posek, one of the gedolim in America, (and I heard the same from someone else who personally asked another very choshuve posek that has been consulted about life and death questions for decades), and he said not to participate in a such a minyan, even if it is being operated on a mannerism that most doctors would consider 100% safe. He did not explain why.
Every person has to have a Rav that they listen to אפילו אם אמר על שמאל ימין ועל ימין שמאל, and this is what my Rav said. Therefore, I am 100% wrong, and all my logic otherwise is worthless.
I must admit that it's very difficult for me. There is a minyan outside my house that consists of a few different families, each on their own individual property in their single family homes, well more than all the recommended distances apart. I literally just have to walk onto my front porch to be part of the minyan, and I hear them davening. Listening to a ruling that is nearly a chok to me is personally very difficult. However, that is the halacha, and I believe that a person who listens to their Rav no matter what does not regret it, and that is what will being the geulah more than any minyan.
כשם שמקבלים שכר על הדרישה, כך מקבלים שכר על הפרישה.
